Device for storing film and sound record tapes



Aug. 28, 1962 DIEHL ETAL 3,05

DEVICE FOR STORING FILM AND SOUND RECORD TAPES Filed June 10, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F/Eii 2 Aug. 28, 1962 DIEHL EI'AL 3,951,537

DEVICE FOR STORING FILM AND SOUND RECORD TAPES Filed June 10, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ties 3,051,537 Patented Aug. 28, 1962 3,051,537 DEVICE FOR STORING FILM AND SO RECORD TAPES Ludwig Diehl, Rohrbach-Darrnstadt, and Johann Heinrich Fuchs, Gadernheim, Odenwald, Germany, assignors to Firrna Carl Schneider, Rohrhach-Darmstadt, Germany, a German company Filed June 10, 1959, Ser. No. 819,341 Claims priority, application Germany June 12, 1958 11 Claims. (Cl. 312-29) This invention is concerned with a device for storing film and sound record tapes.

Films and sound record tapes can be stored in containers in order to protect them from dust, from being touched and from being mechanically damaged. An example of these containers includes wrapping pockets made of cardboard, each consisting of an envelope, at one corner of which there is pivotally attached a cover extending into the envelope. Owing to the flexibility of the cardboard material used such pockets can hardly be stacked in an upright position, but have to be stacked lying fiat on top of one another. To pull a particular required tape from a pile, and even more to file it again after use at the correct place is the more inconvenient the greater the number of tapes to be stored in this fashion.

On th other hand containers which are made of synthetic material, and generally provided with a base face, are rather more rigid, but they usually have the shape of a round box in which the cover has to be pushed over or into the large area of the lower portion. Although such containers can be stored archive-fashion like books, even here the required container has to be taken out of its row, in order to be able to take the tape reel out of it. Moreover such a row of containers requires at each end a support exactly like a book end.

Moreover, for gramophone records, racks are known wherein a lever is positioned under each sound record plate, and by depressing a particular key, which may carry an inscription if desired, the corresponding record plate is tilted forward so that it can be gripped more easily than when standing in one row with the other plates. This principle is, however, applicable only to record plates of uniform size which stand individually and uncovered.

The invention has the object of simplifying the safe storing and selecting of filmor sound record tapecassettes in archives. Primarily the improvement of the stability of the cassettes is applicable to any number of cassettes. This is attained by special legs, which are detachably attached, for example, by press-button-like projections engaging into corresponding recesses at the underside of the cassettes. Each of these legs comprises two connected supplementary parts each having a projection in the form of a pin, and each cassette, depending on its size, has two or more pairs of attachment means in the form of holes, so that each individual cassette may be pro- Vided with two or more legs to ensure stability.

When several cassettes are placed side by side, the respective legs are ofiset by the separation distance of the holes, so that each leg connects two adjacent cassettes with one another. In this manner a sort of chain is formed in which large and small cassettes can alternate with one another as required, and still 'be aligned with one another at their fronts. For this purpose it is only required that the distance of the foremost pair of holes from the front is the same for all cassettes regardless of their size.

The two end cassettes of a row are suitably mounted in the unoccupied holes of further legs, which may be halved, if desired, so as to form supplementary parts. These two cassettes cannot lean outward as they are supported by their connection with the row as a whole.

Of course the pins may alternatively be arranged on the cassettes, and the recesses in the legs and instead of a press-button-like mounting obviously any other suitable type could be used, for example, a mortise joint type of connection with dovetail or rectangular shape, or even suction pads might be suitable for the connection. The only essential is the feature of easily attaching and detaching the legs to, and from, the cassettes, respectively.

Although this arrangement and construction of the cassettes constitutes a completely satisfactory solution of the problem of collecting and storing film or sound record tape reels, the taking out of the reels from the cassettes is still rather inconvenient, since the reels can only be gripped with difiiculty after opening the lid at the front. The purpose of an archive, however, is not only the storing, but the possibility of easy withdrawal of any collected and stored piece. In order to achieve this, the lid is according to a further feature of the invention particularly shaped as well as particularly mounted. Inherently the basic shape, known from cardboard boxes, is used, which has an outer envelope and a lid pivotally mounted therein; but on the one hand the pivot point is chosen near the middle rather than adjacent one corner of the envelope, namely so that it is displaced forward and downward from the diagonal of the envelope. Furthermore the lower rear portion of the pivoted lid is extended beyond the middle of the bottom of the outer envelope and has a rounded bottom corner so that it can reach beneath the reel contained in the cassette. Finally the forward edges of the side walls of the outer envelope are S-shaped. Moreover on the narrow upper margin of the cassette a snap latch is provided, which looks the lid in its closed position so that it can be easily released by pressure from above.

If the lid is unfastened and swung forward and downward, its lower rear portion fetches the reel out of the outer envelope, so that it can be easily gripped. When returning the reel, the reverse procedure is undertaken. It is then only necessary to raise the upper part of the lid Which then lies below, a small amount after inserting the reel, since the weight of the reel completes the closing movement automatically and lets the latch operate.

Since all cassettes, Whether large or small, are in straight alignment with one another at their fronts owing to the positioning of the detachable and olf-settable legs, all reels are equally ready to be taken out and to be inserted again, without having their order disturbed in any way. The legs consist of a rather pliable, rubber-like synthetic material, which offers the following advantages which are important for the present purpose: 1) the possibility of slipping is thereby reduced; (2) th scratching of a polished surface of a piece of furniture on which the cassettes may be positioned is prevented; (3) th adhesion of the legs to the cassettes is facilitated; (4) such legs dampen any vibration from a sound producing piece of flrniture, upon or within which the cassettes may stan It is advantageous but not essential to provide each leg with a groove running centrally between the two supplementary parts in order to weaken the thickness of the leg and to fam'litate thereby the halving of the leg as is occasionally desirable for the end cassettes of a row.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example in the drawings, in which FIGURE 1 shows a side view of the cassette in the closed state;

FIGURE 2 shows the cassette in plan view from above;

FIGURE 3 and 4 show a detachable leg; and

FIGURE 5 shows two cassettes of different size in a row side by side, one of them in the open condition.

The outer envelope or container housing 1, of the cassette, has as its upper forward edge the snap latch 2, and

the pivot 3 is displaced downwardly and forwardly from the geometrical center of the basically square side walls.

The pivot may simply consist in a hole in each side wall, into which pins of the lid or inner, portion 4 may reach, which may be upset from outside after having been inserted, in order to securely hold the parts together. The forward edges of the side walls of the outer envelope are in this case S-shaped. This S-curve 5, which has been completed by the portion 5a has been so selected merely for aesthetic reasons, and the lower projection on the envelope 1 has the upper edges 6.

The bottom face of the outer envelope has three pairs of recesses 7, while with smaller cassettes two of them, and with larger ones even four pairs would have to be provided, as the case may be. Into these recesses 7 the pins 8 of the legs 9 are forced, namely both pins 8 into both recesses of one pair, when a cassette has to be set up by itself, but one pin 8 only into one of the recesses 7 of a pair, when two or more cassettes are to be connected with one another, as shown in FIGURE 5.

The number of legs which have to be arranged behind one another, depends on whether cassettes of equal size or of difierent sizes are to be arranged in a row. With cassettes of equal size two legs arranged behind one another would suffice, that is, a total of four; when, however, a smaller cassette follows in the row, three legs will have to be arranged behind one another on the bot tom of the middle cassette of which the foremost and the last are to establish connection to the adjacent cast sette of equal size, and the other frontal and the middle one of the connection to the smaller adjacent cassette. The groove 10 for weakening, and its purpose have already been explained hereinabove.

The inner portion or lid 4 of the cassette overlaps from inside the forward edges 5 of the outer envelope 1 and reaches with its lower rear portion 4a beyond the middle of the bottom of the outer envelope so that an enclosed reel 11 rests on this bottom edge 4a. After swinging the lid 4 downward its originally upper portion contacts and is supported by the projecting point (between 5a and 6) of the outer envelope 1, which is kept slightly smaller, for aesthetical reasons only (up to the edge 5a) than the rest of the envelope of the cassette.

Changes may be made within the scope and spirit of the appended claims which define what is believed to be new and desired to have protected by Letters Patent.

We claim:

1. A tape cassette for storing circular tape reels and the like, comprising an outer 'containerfhousing having oppositely disposed sides connected by a bottom, top and rear edge walls to provide a container open along the front edge, and a cover lid for said container forming therewith a generally square cassette having interior dimensions generally corresponding to the diameter of the circular elements to be stored, pivot means mounting said cover lid on said housing on an axis which is symmetrically spaced from the geometrical center of the cassette toward said bottom and front edges thereof a distance less than the radii of such circular elements and said axis being displaced from said geometrical center a horizontal distance less than the horizontal distance between said axis and the front edge of said bottom wall, opening of the lid being operative to move a circular stored element contained therein laterally outward beyond the front edge of the cassette whereby such an element may be readily grasped with the center of gravity of such an element at all times remaining within said generally square cassette.

2. A tape cassette as defined in claim 1, wherein said lid has bottom and edge wall portions extending at right 4 angles to one another and connected by an arcuately shaped portion with said bottom wall portion having a length to engage such a circular element and move the same outwardly when the lid is moved to open position with the center of gravity of such an element shifting from one side of said axis to the other whereby the lid is retained in either closed or open position.

3. A tape cassette as defined in claim 2, wherein the upper end of said lid edge wall portion and the adjacent portion of the housing'are provided with cooperable lat-ch means for locking the lid'in closed position.

4. A device for storing tape records side-by-side, comprising a plurality of cassettes, respectively individual to 7 each tape record, each cassette having relatively narrow edges insuflicient to provide a stable supporting face therefor, and comprising an envelope having an outer portion and an inner portion forming in closed condition thereof the general outline of a rectangle, said inner portion forming a pivotal lid at one narrow side of the envelope, the pivot points of said lid lying along a diagonal line of the side faces of the envelope near and below the geometrical center point of said sides faces, leg means detachably carried by each cassette at the bottom thereof and providing stable support therefor, said leg means constructed for connection, in one position, with a single cassette to operatively support the same, and in another position, to extend between and interconnect two adjacently disposed cassettes, each cassette being provided with at least two pairs of fastening means, said leg' means consisting of individual elements, each element having a pair of said fastening means.

5. A device according to claim 4, wherein the forward edges of the side walls of the outer envelope portion extend along an approximately S-shaped line.

6. A device according to claim 4, comprising a snap latch at the upper narrow margin of the outer envelope portion for locking said lid in closed position.

7. A device according to claim 4, wherein the lower rear edge of said lid extends in depth beyond the middle of the cassette.

8. A device according to claim 4, wherein the bottom wall of the outer cassette portion extends forwardly to form a support for the lid in its open downwardly tilting position.

9. A device according to claim 4, wherein the pivot points comprise pins carried by said lid for engagement into holes formed in said outer envelope portion.

10. A device according to claim 4, wherein said leg means is made of pliable synthetic material.

11. A device according to claim 4, wherein said leg means is made of pliable synthetic material having a weakening groove formed therein extending between the fastening means carried thereby at which the leg means may be divided in half.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 835,582 Tobey Nov. 13, 1906 896,637 Herrman Aug. 18, 1908 1,076,116 Hatfield Oct. 21, 1913 1,144,736 Smith June 29, 1915 1,327,489 Matthews Jan. 6, 1920 2,165,122 Ashberry July 4, 1939 2,432,379 Butler Dec. 9, 1947 2,705,203 Heidrich Mar. 29, 1955 2,720,204 Wallach Oct. 11, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,895 Great Britain 1914 440,309 Germany Feb. 3, 1927 

